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International Committee Talkshop II: Pedagogies of Dissent in A Global Context

Fri, November 10, 2:00 to 3:45pm, Hyatt Regency Chicago, Horner, Third Floor West Tower

Session Submission Type: Paper Session: Talk Format

Abstract

This panel, hosted by the ASA’s International Committee, emerges at the intersection of theory and praxis to interrogate the global possibilities and limitations of oppositional pedagogies. This panel affirms that current conditions around the world demand a critical consideration of “dissent” as theory and praxis. Engaging directly with the Meeting’s theme, this panel likewise invites inquiry into the intellectual, political, historical and social genealogies of critical and transformative thought and praxis, not only in the literal space of the classroom, but also more broadly, in the material and virtual spaces where teaching and learning happen, among those who may be outside of formal relationships or institutions. Our particular take on this year’s theme will be to engage global, transnational and international perspectives to interrogate and consider the very meaning of terms such as “pedagogy” and “dissent” from within and outside the geopolitical and cultural boundaries of North America. We are interested in conversations that explore how working in a transnational or international contexts challenges scholars, teachers, and activists to re-think how oppositional pedagogy can be enacted (or not), as well as how global contexts create challenges and innovations that lead to new epistemologies and new forms of resistance.

We take up some of the Meeting’s core questions: How are such pedagogies constructed? Through what means, in what spaces? What are the exigent conditions giving rise to their emergence? What conditions of possibility allow them to flourish, or diminish their effectiveness? Yet, we will address these questions through some of our own: What does it mean to enact pedagogies of dissent in highly regulated spaces (institutional, governmental and public), where dissent may be restricted, banned, or invite violent repercussions? How do we model oppositional practices and ideas for students for whom enacting such practices could mean risking their physical safety? For example, although queer theory and queer praxis are integral parts of some of our scholarship, it is not always safe to teach queer(ly) and to be openly queer in the classroom. Issues of safety, propriety, and rebellion all coalesce to shape the ways in which we teach and differing classroom contexts in the U.S. and abroad influence how teachers and students enact (or don’t) strategies of compliance and resistance.

In considering the real-life risks and costs of opposition from a global perspective, we ask: In what ways do the personal and academic aspects of global scholarship interact? How do the everyday (daily life) personal experiences of working, living, and teaching globally actually translate (or not) different traditions of “pedagogy” and “dissent” in the classroom, in their research, and elsewhere? Can global networks, created through circulation, travel, the technologies of modernity can help to sustain international solidarity? How can oppositional practices help facilitate better connections with international institutions that can lead to productive collaborations? Ultimately, our transnational and interdisciplinary community will use these questions, and others, to respond to the ASA’s call: What can be asked and studied, said and taught, and by whom and how? To this call, we, as a community invested in global and international partnerships, add questions of location, to consider also “where” learning and dissent can/not happen and how location(s) are embedded in long lived and ongoing contestations over the purposes and shapes of education.

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